Author: Shubham Kumthekar

European Individual 07: Inarkiev beats Saric

Overnight sole leader GM Ivan Saric of Croatia suffered a tough 49-move defeat at the hands of Russian GM Ernesto Inarkiev in the 7th round of the European Individual Chess Championship 2016. The Inarkiev-Saric clash, that commenced with the ever-popular King’s Indian Defence, saw the White player sacrifice a pawn soon after the opening. A complex middlegame ensued, wherein Inarkiev masterfully outplayed his Croatian opponent. Saric found the going tough, throwing in the towel on move 49.

On the second board, top seed GM David Navara overcame the Georgian free-spirit GM Baadur Jobava. The former displayed exceptional endgame technique on his way to this crucial victory.

After 7 rounds of gruelling battles, GM Navara and GM Inarkiev are in joint lead with 6/7. The two will be up against each other in the 8th round of this 11-round swiss event.

Round 7 Results

European Individual 06: Ivan Saric in sole lead

The sixth round of the European Individual Chess Championship 2016 finally led to the emergence of a sole leader in the form of GM Ivan Saric. The 26-year-old from Croatia overcame Russian GM Maxim Matlakov from the white side of a Ruy Lopez Marshall to take his points tally to 5.5/6.

Meanwhile, the battle between the top seed GM David Navara and second seed Radoslaw Wojtaszek resulted in an uneventful 24-move draw. A total of five players, including Navara and Wojtaszek, are currently placed second with 5 points each.

In the 7th round, tournament leader Saric will be locking horns against in-form Russian GM Ernesto Inarkiev whilst top seed Navara will be up against the creative genius of Georgian GM Baadur Jobava.

Round 6 Results

 

European Individual 04: Wojtaszek, Jobava, Inarkiev share lead

The fourth round of the European Individual Chess Championship 2016 saw a trio of three top-notch Grandmasters emerge as joint leaders. GMs Wojtaszek, Inarkiev and Jobava, all playing White, overcame GMs Ipatov, Andriasian and Parligras respectively, thus moving on to a perfect 4 points from 4 rounds. The competition, however, is quite intense, with as many as 8 Grandmasters, including top seed GM David Navara, placed joint second with 3.5/4.

In the fifth round, Inarkiev and Wojtaszek will be locking horns on the top board whilst Jobava has been paired against third-seed Vitiugov.

Round 4 Results

European Individual 01: Top seeds have it easy

The 17th European Individual Chess Championship commenced yesterday in Gjakova, Kosovo. The field is simply mind-boggling – a total of 245 players are participating, which includes as many as 103 Grandmasters! Czech GM David Navara, rated 2735, is the top seed at this 11-round Swiss event.

The tournament took off on a relatively easy note for the stronger players. A huge majority of the Grandmasters scored victories to commence their campaign, with GMs Kryvoruchko, Sargissian and David Howell being the only ones to be held for draws. No upsets were registered.

After an easy opening round, a staggering 41 GM vs GM encounters will be seen in Round 2, making it an absolute spectacle.

The rounds begin daily at 13:30 GMT or 7 PM Indian Standard Time, with the sole exception of the final round which commences at 9:00 GMT/ 2:30 PM IST. A rest day will be observed on the 18th of May.

Round 1 Results

Hasselbacken 05: Sethuraman, Adhiban amongst leaders

The 5th round of the Hasselbacken Open 2016 saw the top two games viz. Mareco-Almasi and Maze-Smirin end peacefully. This allowed a whole bunch of players to move into joint lead. After 5 rounds of play, as many as 9 players, including Former World Championship Candidate GM Dmitry Andreikin and Indian GMs Sethuraman and Adhiban, are in lead with 4.5/5.

The highlight of the day, however, was teenage American GM Samuel Sevian’s spectacular victory over GM Alexei Shirov with the black pieces. The Latvian GM, typical to his style, played an interesting Rook sacrifice on move 21. However, he was unable to follow it up in the best of ways, thus ending up quite worse. Nevertheless, the position on the board was extremely complicated and it took Sevian a stunning Rook sacrifice to finally end up on the winning side.

In the 6th round of the event, top-seed GM Andreikin will take on GM Sethuraman while GM Adhiban is paired against GM Landa.

Round 5 Results

Hasselbacken 04: Five Grandmasters in lead

The Hasselbacken Chess Open commenced on 30th April, 2016 in Stockholm, Sweden. This 9-round swiss event, organized to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Stockholm Chess Society, has attracted more than 300 participants from all round the globe, who are fighting it out for the first prize of 50000 SEK. As many as 34 Grandmasters are participating in the event, with Former World Championship Candidate GM Dmitry Andreikin being the top seed.

After 4 rounds, a total of 5 Grandmasters – Mareco Sandro, Zoltan Almasi, Sebastien Maze, Ilia Smirin and Urkedal Frode – are in the lead with perfect scores of 4/4. Urkedal Frode, who was recently conferred with the title of Grandmaster, overcame the experienced Indian GM Krishnan Sasikiran in Round 4.

Amongst Indians, GMs Adhiban, Sethuraman and Vidit Gujrathi have notched up 3.5 points and are joint second with 16 other players.

Round 4 Results

Norway Chess Final: The World Champion Triumphs!

The fourth edition of the Norway Chess Tournament was won by the local hero – World Champion Magnus Carlsen. Carlsen scored a total of 6 points from a possible 9 en route to his maiden Norway Chess title.

Going into the 9th and final round of the tournament, Carlsen and Aronian were tied for the first place with 5 points each. However, Carlsen succeeded in overcoming Eljanov in his final round game whilst Aronian could only manage a draw against Harikrishna. As such, Aronian had to settle for the runners-up spot.

Meanwhile, Harikrishna, the lone Indian in the fray, had a roller-coaster event and finished with a 50% score.

Round 9 Results

Carlsen 1-0 Eljanov
Harikrishna ½-½ Aronian
Grandelius ½-½ Vachier-Lagrave
Topalov ½-½ Kramnik
Li Chao ½-½ Giri


Final Standings

Rank Name Rating Score
1 Carlsen 2851 6
2 Aronian 2784 5.5
3 Vachier-Lagrave 2788 5
4 Topalov 2754 5
5 Kramnik 2801 5
6 Li Chao 2755 4.5
7 Harikrishna 2763 4.5
8 Giri 2790 4
9 Eljanov 2765 3
10 Grandelius 2649 2.5

Norway Chess 08: Aronian beats Carlsen, joins him in lead

The 8th and penultimate round of the Norway Chess Tournament 2016 led to a major change at the top of the rankings table. World Champion Magnus Carlsen, who was a whole point ahead of his nearest rivals, crucially went down against Levon Aronian. Courtesy of this result, Aronian and Carlsen go into the final round of the tournament as joint leaders.

Aronian’s victory over Carlsen was nothing but emphatic. Almost immediately after the opening, Carlsen went astray with a string of small inaccuracies. While Aronian was already firmly in the driver’s seat, Carlsen made a huge mistake on move 26, helping Aronian round off the matters pretty quickly.

Indian ace Pentala Harikrishna also had a tough day at the office. Hari, playing black, was unable to pose any problems for Kramnik, with the latter going on to win the game in his trademark positional style.

Meanwhile, Li Chao beat Pavel Eljanov en route to his first victory of the tournament.

Results

Aronian 1-0 Carlsen
Kramnik 1-0 Harikrishna
Eljanov 0-1 Li Chao
Vachier-Lagrave ½-½ Topalov
Giri ½-½ Grandelius

Norway Chess 07: Carlsen takes a commanding lead

World Champion Magnus Carlsen scored an emphatic victory over World No.2 Vladimir Kramnik in the 7th round of the Norway Chess Tournament 2016. With this crucial win, Carlsen has taken a commanding one point lead over his nearest rivals.

The Carlsen-Kramnik battle took off with the Exchange Variation of the Queen’s Gambit Declined. Although the queens were swapped off pretty early, the game followed an interesting course, eventually leading to a complicated queenless middlegame. Around the 20 moves mark, Kramnik lost his way and made a couple of grave errors. Carlsen duly capitalized on these errors and went on to win a very convincing game.

In the only other decisive game of the day, Levon Aronian overcame Pavel Eljanov. This was Aronian’s first win of the tournament after having drawn his first six games.

Results

Carlsen 1-0 Kramnik
Aronian 1-0 Eljanov
Harikrishna ½-½ Vachier-Lagrave
Topalov ½-½ Giri
Grandelius ½-½ Li Chao

U.S. Championship Final: Caruana crowned the new champion

World No.3 GM Fabiano Caruana was crowned the new champion of the United States of America at the recently concluded U.S. Championship 2016. In the 11th and final round of the event, Caruana convincingly overcame IM Akshat Chandra with the black pieces.

Caruana scored a total of 8.5 points out of a possible 11 and remained unbeaten en route to his first U.S. title.

Caruana’s closest competitors – GMs Wesley So and Hikaru Nakamura – scored 7.5 points each. However, Wesley So’s superior tie-break score helped him finish second while Nakamura had to settle for the third spot.

Final Standings

Rank Name Rating Score
1 Caruana 2795 8.5
2 Wesley So 2773 7.5
3 Nakamura 2787 7.5
4 Robson 2663 7
5 Onischuk 2664 6
6 Xiong 2618 5.5
7 Kamsky 2678 5
8 Shankland 2656 4.5
9 Lenderman 2618 4.5
10 Akobian 2615 4.5
11 Shabalov 2528 4
12 Chandra 2477 1.5